Please scroll to the bottom of the page to see my course embedded reflection for Ed 5364 Week 1: Read and write a reflection on what you have learned.
This week's reading has been all about the constructivist theory for education and how it helps when applying technology to the classroom setting. More and more we are being asked to incorporate technology, but not very often does the administration for a group of teachers talk about what that incorporation looks like. Research has been done that states the "...constructivist theory posits that students make sense of the world by synthesizing new experiences into what they have previously understood. They form rules through reflection on their interaction with objects and ideas. When they encounter an object, idea, or relationship that does not make sense to them, they either interpret what they see to conform to their rules or they adjust their rules to better account for the new information" (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). By this theory therefore, it is our job as educators to provide them with an environment where they can do this. We need to give kids the room and space to explore what they already know and connect it to the world around them. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory has this to say about constructivism, "learners bring unique prior knowledge, experience, and beliefs to a learning situation" (1999). And since the generations we are teaching are largely digital natives, they will use technology first to solve any issues that they have. We need to be willing to support this tendency instead of stopping it due to our outdated notions of what education is supposed to look like.
There are many ways we can offer a more technological learning environment to students. One way is through social networking. Bring kids together to learn, share and reflect in an online forum can be very beneficial. One study done on social networking says that "...social networking sites offer the tools to level the playing field from the old hierarchical, top-down structure of the corporate era to the new, horizontal, and collaborative structure taking form on the world wide web" (McPheeters, 2009). We are seeing this more and more with politics during this election year. The soap box just got a lot easier to clime and given a captive audience, some really great conversations are being had that are influencing a lot of people. Social networking would allow kids a chance to express themselves in a way they are comfortable with and could allow teaching to take a new shape. Teacher would be able to let go of the reigns and allow kids to drive instruction and conversation in a more organic way. The bottom line is that "As the technology explosion continues world-wide, society’s call for education’s timely response sounds louder than ever before" (McPheeters, 2009). Knowing this, we as teachers need to start to investigate and develop new ways of educating students.
Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search for understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
McPheeters, D. (2009, March). Social networking technologies in education. Tech and Learning. Retrieved October 4, 2009 from http://www.teachlearning.com/article/16250.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (1999.) Learning as a personal event: a brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on October 4, 2009 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html.
Reflect on the Experience of Web Conferencing in ED 5364
For ED 5364 this is an option activity, and this week I chose not to participate. I have found that throughout this program the web conferences are less helpful than I thought they would be. The idea of getting everyone together to ask and answer questions is great; but it always seems like there is too much personal conversation going on. It's nice to have people share their thoughts, but I think it should be a requirement to keep the chat on topic. I will attend one of the later web conferences and reflect on the experience at that time.
Week 2: Read and write a reflection on what you've learned
This week's reading and video segments where mostly about ways to implement technology and reasons supported by research for doing so in the first place. To begin, I am a huge proponent of integrating as much technology into the classroom environment as possible. Kids need to see that you are interested in their world and on board with trying new things. Even if you aren't totally comfortable with the applications, the kids will greatly respond to seeing that you can relate to the things they are interested in. "Elementary students, overall, have attitudes regarding computers that are quite different from the adult population preferring to view these new technologies as pragmatic and instrumental (and thus as a means to an end) while adults tend to perceive them in a sociopolitical perspective" (Page, 2002, pg. 391-392). The implications here are huge. If we can't see technology in the same light kids do, we will never begin to tap into the multilayer affects it can have on learning. "Cultural, educational, and legal changes have significantly altered the mix of students in regular education classrooms. At the same time, increasing emphasis on learning standards places greater responsibility on teachers and administrators to ensure that each of these students reaches the highest levels of achievement" (Rose & Meyer, 2002). This idea found in the text Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning really helps to outline the importance for integrating technology and finding ways to support kids who need our help. It is not just about the students, it is also about the sociological and legal ramifications if we don't.
The reading for this week goes on to support the need of technology for the non traditional student as well.Page mentions that "Computers appear to be especially productive with children designated as nontraditional" (2002, pg. 392) and goes on to say that "As opposed to the more numerous reports wherein regular students have used computers with mixed results, the literature contains many cases where students with special needs have experienced increased levels of performance and support when engaging in instruction involving computers" (pg. 392). There are a lot of great ideas out there to help support these claims and giving the time and resources teachers will be able to help more kids learn than ever before.
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 1. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Week 3: Read and write a reflection on what you've learned
For this week, I really focused on the Rose and Meyer text entitled Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learn. Chapter 6 delves into how to use the UDL or Universal Design for Learning lesson format to help reach all students effectively. The lesson should be broken up into three main types of goals: Affective Goals, Strategic Goals and Recognition Goals. Breaking them up in this way allows educators to focus on one branch at a time. The Affective Goals have to do with giving your students flexibility in their work. Since I designed my lesson this week focusing on modifications Gifted and Talented students as well as Low Achievers, this sections was very important to me. Students should be giving options and choices as to how they learn to better meet their needs. "Adjustable levels of challenge have advantages beyond the immediate power to engage. Providing such choices for students makes the process of goal-setting explicit and provides a structured opportunity for students to practice setting realistic goals and optimal challenges for themselves" (2002).
The next section, Strategic Goals has to do with what is to be provided by the educator during the lesson. These things include providing multiple tools for expression, ongoing feedback, practice with support and modeling. These are so important to students who need the guidance of a teacher to help keep them on track. The lower level students I've been focusing on will especially need constant feedback and praise to help motivate them to keep on track. One such example is providing lessons that support holes in students learning background. For example, if you are trying to get kids to reasoning using math skills, but one particular student struggles with their basic math functions, allowing them to use a calculator can alleviate the stress of the math functions and enable the students to focus on the reasoning and lesson outcome. This is what Rose and Meyer refer to as scaffolding which is a huge buzzword in education these days for many reasons, including this one (2002).
The last focus section of a good UDL lesson is the Recognition Goals. This is the section where teachers are to use multiple methods to help extend the knowledge base of their students while also working to teach them news things. "Providing multiple representations of patterns through a variety of media, formats, organizations, levels of detail, and degree of depth includes more learners by offering both choice and redundancy. Choice enables those with disabilities affecting a particular modality to access the information via another one. It also enables students to find the format or medium that appeals to and works best for them increasing their access to learning" (2002).
Although there was a lot to this week's reading and lecture, I found this to be the most useful and rewarding article to read. Writing the UDL lesson after this was much easier.
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Reflect on the experience of using the UDL Lesson format to write a lesson using technology.
At first, when I began reading about the UDL lesson format, I found myself being very negative. In the back of my mind I was saying things like "Not ANOTHER way to write a lesson plan!" and "Like I will ever have time to do THIS on a daily basis". And although I am not totally rid of those cynical notions, I am finding the theory behind the UDL ideals is very good. The three main goal strategies I mentioned above should be part of any good teacher's repertoire. Meeting the needs of all the diverse learners in your classroom can only be done if you try to reach them in a variety of ways. I find that the UDL guidelines encourage teachers to think about ways to add subtle differences to their lessons that will reach a wide audience. This is something that as an administrator, I will need to work hard to get across to teachers. It is not always about reinventing the wheel, but it is certainly about being willing to add variety to your classroom lessons to help reach all students. I think that by reviewing the three different categories of goals with teachers could help open their eyes to the types of modifications they can make to help their students better learn. I found that as I was writing my lesson, it was easy to modify it to reach one, two or three different sub populations at a time. Overall, the process was not terrible and I feel I learned a lot.
Create a UDL book on Bookbuilder and Reflect on the process.
The UDL website offers a lot of good suggestions for creating interactive lessons that will help kids on all levels. One such suggestion, and part of our week 3 assignment, was to create a Bookbuilder book using the sitehttp://bookbuilder.cast.org. On this site, you can create a book for kids that has links, sounds, coaches and graphics. Students can respond and discuss, even leave questions for their teacher to answer later. As with the UDL lesson template, I find the concepts to be pretty great. The execution of the site isn't so great though. I thought it was not very user friendly and extremely slow. Even after I played around with it for quite some time, I could still never get the title page to work and I found the preview process to be a bit cumbersome. I think that the same sort of idea can be achieved more easily be creating a website for kids, but that is just my personal preference. I would have an easier time working up a google site, or a wordpress blog that linked helpful sites and had kids still leave their thoughts and comments in message board style.
It wasn't all bad though. I really did enjoy the coach feature. The coach allows you to type in a sentence or two that can be read allowed to students when they click on the icon. It's a fun way to get kids engaged in the lesson. Very nice feature.
Week 4: Read and Write a reflection on what you've learned.
This week's reading was mostly about technology intervention and assessment. The reading about McRel, the MTI technology intervention plan was very interesting. Not so much for the meat of the work, but the research they did to market their program. This quote was particularly interesting to me, "Technology professional development does not occur in a vacuum" (Pitler, 2005). This is the most important part of technology professional development and is also the biggest barrier to getting teachers to try out new technologies in the classroom. With budget cuts, over working, state testing, tutorials, benchmarks and teacher evaluations, what teacher could possibly have time to try out a new texting tool or integrate the latest Web 2.0 gadget? We need to make all technology professional development relevant and connected to the job. Then, teachers will actually do it and that will help the kids. During some the research presented in the paper, this quote helps to explain the major importance of getting all teachers on board with technology in the classroom.
"When students are learning “from” computers, the computers are essentially tutors. In this capacity, the technology primarily serves the goal of increasing students’ basic skills and knowledge. In learning “with” by contrast, students use technology as a tool that can be applied to a variety of goals in the learning process, rather than serving simply as an instructional delivery system. Students use the technology as a resource to help them develop higher order thinking, creativity, research skills, and so on." (Ringstaff & Kelley, 2002, p. 2)
Moreover, the positive effects of computer-aided instruction on student achievement have been observed across multiple subject areas. A review of 219 research studies from 1990 to 1997 surmised that “students in technology-rich environments experienced positive effects on achievement in all major subject areas” (Schacter, 1999, p. 5) All of this data can clearly show us how important technology professional development and integration actually is.
The other interesting part of the reading this week was the UDL connection to assessment. "To measure change accurately, teachers need multiple, flexible, ongoing assessments more like those used by doctors. An ophthalmologist doesn't assess your needs only by testing your ; she also assesses what interventions will help meet these needs by trying out a series of prescriptive lenses. And the process does not end there: the doctor continues to consult with you on how well the chosen lenses are working as time goes on" (Rose, 2002). UDL does a great job at integrating these types of ongoing assessments throughout the unit and if we can connect technology to that, we are taking one more step in making it relevant and useful to teachers.
Ringstaff, C., & Kelley, L. (2002). The learning return on our educational technology investment: A review of findings from research. San Francisco: WestEd RTEC.
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 7. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology.
Week 5: Read and reflect on what you've learned
"Can assessment be authentic and simultaneously prepare students to succeed in the standardized testing that they will face?" (p. 168) This question, posed by Solomon and Schrum was a big part of this week's reading and video segments. I'd like the answer to be yes but realistically I think that the system is going to have to change before this can happen. The reading would suggest that students who are assessed in a non-traditional method will be equally as prepared for standardized testing as those who are taught in the conventional, lesson to test, method. I am not convinced. If I could, I would challenge the writers to try to teach in a classroom where your work is judged by the success of your students on testing, and be brave enough to try to change the norm. I may seem like I am being negative here, but it is a reality that all teachers are trying to deal with. As the ready mentions, students can be assessed in a variety of ways; but if we are going to continue to make kids pass a state test to graduate high school, we also must spend time preparing them to take those tests. That doesn't just mean teaching curriculum it also means letting them practice the sort of high stakes, high pressure situations they will find themselves in when facing a paper and pencil test.
In his video Big Thinkers: Grading with Games, James Paul Gee mentions that allowing kids to investigate a problems before you show them how to solve it will lead to better understanding. Again, I'd like to agree. But again, realistically, with our current system there isn't time to let kids investigate when we are trying to create efficiency over so much material. (Edutopia, n.d) The ideas are wonderful, but until the institution changes, I don't believe that we'll be able to start teaching like the big thinkers want us to.
So at the end of the week I was left wondering; if we are truly stuck at this crossroads between better test scores and better education, where does that leave the future of teaching in America?
Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education
Course Embedded Reflection:
As an educator, creating lesson plans to fit the needs of students is something I am very familiar with. I often work to modify textbook assignments and lessons to work well with the type of kids I have in my classroom. During the course Teaching with Technology, we were asked to create a unit that addressed the needs of many types of students; including Gifted and Talented and those who are labeled Low Achievers. These are the kids I focused on for my lesson and found that the Universal Design for Learning lesson plans were amazingly helpful to sculpt the lesson to fit these kids. "...constructivist theory posits that students make sense of the world by synthesizing new experiences into what they have previously understood. They form rules through reflection on their interaction with objects and ideas. When they encounter an object, idea, or relationship that does not make sense to them, they either interpret what they see to conform to their rules or they adjust their rules to better account for the new information" (Brooks & Brooks, 1993) Using this as a basis, the UDL lesson planner has you work through each part of the lesson, thinking careful how we can get kids to use their skills to connect to new material. As a learner, this is something that I have always done and struggle to get students to do. While completing the work, I often thought about what would work for me as a learner and tried to apply those needs to the lesson I was writing. Working with my team helped me to build new ideas for lesson writing and grow as a teacher in my field.
Now, more than ever, we as teachers are being held accountable for the successes of our students. "Cultural, educational, and legal changes have significantly altered the mix of students in regular education classrooms. At the same time, increasing emphasis on learning standards places greater responsibility on teachers and administrators to ensure that each of these students reaches the highest levels of achievement" (Rose & Meyer, 2002) As Rose and Meyer point out there, it is our growing responsibility to help kids realize their potential and during this assignment, I found that integrating technology is a great way to do this. By using technology in the classroom we offer kids a way to scaffold their needs into the work and be successful while learning new skills. "Providing multiple representations of patterns through a variety of media, formats, organizations, levels of detail, and degree of depth includes more learners by offering both choice and redundancy. Choice enables those with disabilities affecting a particular modality to access the information via another one. It also enables students to find the format or medium that appeals to and works best for them increasing their access to learning" (Rose & Meyer, 2002). As I move forward with my work, I will continue to keep this in mind when I design lessons. Giving kids a choice of materials, especially for subgroups like GT, helps them experience the learning in a way that supports the knowledge they already have.
Hopefully in the future I’ll find myself working to help other teachers integrate technology to become better educators. It is important to remember that “students in technology-rich environments experienced positive effects on achievement in all major subject areas” (Schacter, 1999, p. 5). If I can help other teachers to experience this the way I have during Teaching with Technology, I’ll be doing some good for education. I will continue to research these ideas as I move forward with my work.
Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search for understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 1. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology.
Week 1: Read and write a reflection on what you have learned.
This week's reading has been all about the constructivist theory for education and how it helps when applying technology to the classroom setting. More and more we are being asked to incorporate technology, but not very often does the administration for a group of teachers talk about what that incorporation looks like. Research has been done that states the "...constructivist theory posits that students make sense of the world by synthesizing new experiences into what they have previously understood. They form rules through reflection on their interaction with objects and ideas. When they encounter an object, idea, or relationship that does not make sense to them, they either interpret what they see to conform to their rules or they adjust their rules to better account for the new information" (Brooks & Brooks, 1993). By this theory therefore, it is our job as educators to provide them with an environment where they can do this. We need to give kids the room and space to explore what they already know and connect it to the world around them. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory has this to say about constructivism, "learners bring unique prior knowledge, experience, and beliefs to a learning situation" (1999). And since the generations we are teaching are largely digital natives, they will use technology first to solve any issues that they have. We need to be willing to support this tendency instead of stopping it due to our outdated notions of what education is supposed to look like.
There are many ways we can offer a more technological learning environment to students. One way is through social networking. Bring kids together to learn, share and reflect in an online forum can be very beneficial. One study done on social networking says that "...social networking sites offer the tools to level the playing field from the old hierarchical, top-down structure of the corporate era to the new, horizontal, and collaborative structure taking form on the world wide web" (McPheeters, 2009). We are seeing this more and more with politics during this election year. The soap box just got a lot easier to clime and given a captive audience, some really great conversations are being had that are influencing a lot of people. Social networking would allow kids a chance to express themselves in a way they are comfortable with and could allow teaching to take a new shape. Teacher would be able to let go of the reigns and allow kids to drive instruction and conversation in a more organic way. The bottom line is that "As the technology explosion continues world-wide, society’s call for education’s timely response sounds louder than ever before" (McPheeters, 2009). Knowing this, we as teachers need to start to investigate and develop new ways of educating students.
Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search for understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
McPheeters, D. (2009, March). Social networking technologies in education. Tech and Learning. Retrieved October 4, 2009 from http://www.teachlearning.com/article/16250.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (1999.) Learning as a personal event: a brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on October 4, 2009 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html.
Reflect on the Experience of Web Conferencing in ED 5364
For ED 5364 this is an option activity, and this week I chose not to participate. I have found that throughout this program the web conferences are less helpful than I thought they would be. The idea of getting everyone together to ask and answer questions is great; but it always seems like there is too much personal conversation going on. It's nice to have people share their thoughts, but I think it should be a requirement to keep the chat on topic. I will attend one of the later web conferences and reflect on the experience at that time.
Week 2: Read and write a reflection on what you've learned
This week's reading and video segments where mostly about ways to implement technology and reasons supported by research for doing so in the first place. To begin, I am a huge proponent of integrating as much technology into the classroom environment as possible. Kids need to see that you are interested in their world and on board with trying new things. Even if you aren't totally comfortable with the applications, the kids will greatly respond to seeing that you can relate to the things they are interested in. "Elementary students, overall, have attitudes regarding computers that are quite different from the adult population preferring to view these new technologies as pragmatic and instrumental (and thus as a means to an end) while adults tend to perceive them in a sociopolitical perspective" (Page, 2002, pg. 391-392). The implications here are huge. If we can't see technology in the same light kids do, we will never begin to tap into the multilayer affects it can have on learning. "Cultural, educational, and legal changes have significantly altered the mix of students in regular education classrooms. At the same time, increasing emphasis on learning standards places greater responsibility on teachers and administrators to ensure that each of these students reaches the highest levels of achievement" (Rose & Meyer, 2002). This idea found in the text Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning really helps to outline the importance for integrating technology and finding ways to support kids who need our help. It is not just about the students, it is also about the sociological and legal ramifications if we don't.
The reading for this week goes on to support the need of technology for the non traditional student as well.Page mentions that "Computers appear to be especially productive with children designated as nontraditional" (2002, pg. 392) and goes on to say that "As opposed to the more numerous reports wherein regular students have used computers with mixed results, the literature contains many cases where students with special needs have experienced increased levels of performance and support when engaging in instruction involving computers" (pg. 392). There are a lot of great ideas out there to help support these claims and giving the time and resources teachers will be able to help more kids learn than ever before.
Page, M. S. (2002). Technology - enriched classrooms: Effects on students of low socioeconomic status. Journal of Research of Technology in Education, 34(4), 389 - 409. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=number_4_Summer_20021$Template=/membersonly.cfm&ContentFileID=830
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 1. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Week 3: Read and write a reflection on what you've learned
For this week, I really focused on the Rose and Meyer text entitled Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learn. Chapter 6 delves into how to use the UDL or Universal Design for Learning lesson format to help reach all students effectively. The lesson should be broken up into three main types of goals: Affective Goals, Strategic Goals and Recognition Goals. Breaking them up in this way allows educators to focus on one branch at a time. The Affective Goals have to do with giving your students flexibility in their work. Since I designed my lesson this week focusing on modifications Gifted and Talented students as well as Low Achievers, this sections was very important to me. Students should be giving options and choices as to how they learn to better meet their needs. "Adjustable levels of challenge have advantages beyond the immediate power to engage. Providing such choices for students makes the process of goal-setting explicit and provides a structured opportunity for students to practice setting realistic goals and optimal challenges for themselves" (2002).
The next section, Strategic Goals has to do with what is to be provided by the educator during the lesson. These things include providing multiple tools for expression, ongoing feedback, practice with support and modeling. These are so important to students who need the guidance of a teacher to help keep them on track. The lower level students I've been focusing on will especially need constant feedback and praise to help motivate them to keep on track. One such example is providing lessons that support holes in students learning background. For example, if you are trying to get kids to reasoning using math skills, but one particular student struggles with their basic math functions, allowing them to use a calculator can alleviate the stress of the math functions and enable the students to focus on the reasoning and lesson outcome. This is what Rose and Meyer refer to as scaffolding which is a huge buzzword in education these days for many reasons, including this one (2002).
The last focus section of a good UDL lesson is the Recognition Goals. This is the section where teachers are to use multiple methods to help extend the knowledge base of their students while also working to teach them news things. "Providing multiple representations of patterns through a variety of media, formats, organizations, levels of detail, and degree of depth includes more learners by offering both choice and redundancy. Choice enables those with disabilities affecting a particular modality to access the information via another one. It also enables students to find the format or medium that appeals to and works best for them increasing their access to learning" (2002).
Although there was a lot to this week's reading and lecture, I found this to be the most useful and rewarding article to read. Writing the UDL lesson after this was much easier.
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Reflect on the experience of using the UDL Lesson format to write a lesson using technology.
At first, when I began reading about the UDL lesson format, I found myself being very negative. In the back of my mind I was saying things like "Not ANOTHER way to write a lesson plan!" and "Like I will ever have time to do THIS on a daily basis". And although I am not totally rid of those cynical notions, I am finding the theory behind the UDL ideals is very good. The three main goal strategies I mentioned above should be part of any good teacher's repertoire. Meeting the needs of all the diverse learners in your classroom can only be done if you try to reach them in a variety of ways. I find that the UDL guidelines encourage teachers to think about ways to add subtle differences to their lessons that will reach a wide audience. This is something that as an administrator, I will need to work hard to get across to teachers. It is not always about reinventing the wheel, but it is certainly about being willing to add variety to your classroom lessons to help reach all students. I think that by reviewing the three different categories of goals with teachers could help open their eyes to the types of modifications they can make to help their students better learn. I found that as I was writing my lesson, it was easy to modify it to reach one, two or three different sub populations at a time. Overall, the process was not terrible and I feel I learned a lot.
Create a UDL book on Bookbuilder and Reflect on the process.
The UDL website offers a lot of good suggestions for creating interactive lessons that will help kids on all levels. One such suggestion, and part of our week 3 assignment, was to create a Bookbuilder book using the site http://bookbuilder.cast.org. On this site, you can create a book for kids that has links, sounds, coaches and graphics. Students can respond and discuss, even leave questions for their teacher to answer later. As with the UDL lesson template, I find the concepts to be pretty great. The execution of the site isn't so great though. I thought it was not very user friendly and extremely slow. Even after I played around with it for quite some time, I could still never get the title page to work and I found the preview process to be a bit cumbersome. I think that the same sort of idea can be achieved more easily be creating a website for kids, but that is just my personal preference. I would have an easier time working up a google site, or a wordpress blog that linked helpful sites and had kids still leave their thoughts and comments in message board style.
It wasn't all bad though. I really did enjoy the coach feature. The coach allows you to type in a sentence or two that can be read allowed to students when they click on the icon. It's a fun way to get kids engaged in the lesson. Very nice feature.
Overall, like most web2.0 tools, book builder has it's ups and downs, but it's a great thing to add to the tool box of any teacher who is dedicated to doing a good job. You can see the book I created by following this link: http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=share&book=26b77ac353a0cda5076537bb0a35143e&sid=7517
Week 4: Read and Write a reflection on what you've learned.
This week's reading was mostly about technology intervention and assessment. The reading about McRel, the MTI technology intervention plan was very interesting. Not so much for the meat of the work, but the research they did to market their program. This quote was particularly interesting to me, "Technology professional development does not occur in a vacuum" (Pitler, 2005). This is the most important part of technology professional development and is also the biggest barrier to getting teachers to try out new technologies in the classroom. With budget cuts, over working, state testing, tutorials, benchmarks and teacher evaluations, what teacher could possibly have time to try out a new texting tool or integrate the latest Web 2.0 gadget? We need to make all technology professional development relevant and connected to the job. Then, teachers will actually do it and that will help the kids. During some the research presented in the paper, this quote helps to explain the major importance of getting all teachers on board with technology in the classroom.
"When students are learning “from” computers, the computers are essentially tutors. In this capacity, the technology primarily serves the goal of increasing students’ basic skills and knowledge. In learning “with” by contrast, students use technology as a tool that can be applied to a variety of goals in the learning process, rather than serving simply as an instructional delivery system. Students use the technology as a resource to help them develop higher order thinking, creativity, research skills, and so on." (Ringstaff & Kelley, 2002, p. 2)
Moreover, the positive effects of computer-aided instruction on student achievement have been observed across multiple subject areas. A review of 219 research studies from 1990 to 1997 surmised that “students in technology-rich environments experienced positive effects on achievement in all major subject areas” (Schacter, 1999, p. 5) All of this data can clearly show us how important technology professional development and integration actually is.
The other interesting part of the reading this week was the UDL connection to assessment. "To measure change accurately, teachers need multiple, flexible, ongoing assessments more like those used by doctors. An ophthalmologist doesn't assess your needs only by testing your ; she also assesses what interventions will help meet these needs by trying out a series of prescriptive lenses. And the process does not end there: the doctor continues to consult with you on how well the chosen lenses are working as time goes on" (Rose, 2002). UDL does a great job at integrating these types of ongoing assessments throughout the unit and if we can connect technology to that, we are taking one more step in making it relevant and useful to teachers.
Pitler, H. (2005). McRel technology initiave: The development of a technology intervention program final report (Contract Number ED-01-CO-0006). Aurora, CO: Mid-Contir Research for Education and Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 486685) Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICxtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED486685&ERICxtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED486685
Ringstaff, C., & Kelley, L. (2002). The learning return on our educational technology investment: A review of findings from research. San Francisco: WestEd RTEC.
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 7. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology.
Week 5: Read and reflect on what you've learned
"Can assessment be authentic and simultaneously prepare students to succeed in the standardized testing that they will face?" (p. 168) This question, posed by Solomon and Schrum was a big part of this week's reading and video segments. I'd like the answer to be yes but realistically I think that the system is going to have to change before this can happen. The reading would suggest that students who are assessed in a non-traditional method will be equally as prepared for standardized testing as those who are taught in the conventional, lesson to test, method. I am not convinced. If I could, I would challenge the writers to try to teach in a classroom where your work is judged by the success of your students on testing, and be brave enough to try to change the norm. I may seem like I am being negative here, but it is a reality that all teachers are trying to deal with. As the ready mentions, students can be assessed in a variety of ways; but if we are going to continue to make kids pass a state test to graduate high school, we also must spend time preparing them to take those tests. That doesn't just mean teaching curriculum it also means letting them practice the sort of high stakes, high pressure situations they will find themselves in when facing a paper and pencil test.
In his video Big Thinkers: Grading with Games, James Paul Gee mentions that allowing kids to investigate a problems before you show them how to solve it will lead to better understanding. Again, I'd like to agree. But again, realistically, with our current system there isn't time to let kids investigate when we are trying to create efficiency over so much material. (Edutopia, n.d) The ideas are wonderful, but until the institution changes, I don't believe that we'll be able to start teaching like the big thinkers want us to.
So at the end of the week I was left wondering; if we are truly stuck at this crossroads between better test scores and better education, where does that leave the future of teaching in America?
Edutopia.org (n.d.). Big thinkers:James Paul Gee on grading with games. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-james-gee-video.
Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education
Course Embedded Reflection:
As an educator, creating lesson plans to fit the needs of students is something I am very familiar with. I often work to modify textbook assignments and lessons to work well with the type of kids I have in my classroom. During the course Teaching with Technology, we were asked to create a unit that addressed the needs of many types of students; including Gifted and Talented and those who are labeled Low Achievers. These are the kids I focused on for my lesson and found that the Universal Design for Learning lesson plans were amazingly helpful to sculpt the lesson to fit these kids. "...constructivist theory posits that students make sense of the world by synthesizing new experiences into what they have previously understood. They form rules through reflection on their interaction with objects and ideas. When they encounter an object, idea, or relationship that does not make sense to them, they either interpret what they see to conform to their rules or they adjust their rules to better account for the new information" (Brooks & Brooks, 1993) Using this as a basis, the UDL lesson planner has you work through each part of the lesson, thinking careful how we can get kids to use their skills to connect to new material. As a learner, this is something that I have always done and struggle to get students to do. While completing the work, I often thought about what would work for me as a learner and tried to apply those needs to the lesson I was writing. Working with my team helped me to build new ideas for lesson writing and grow as a teacher in my field.
Now, more than ever, we as teachers are being held accountable for the successes of our students. "Cultural, educational, and legal changes have significantly altered the mix of students in regular education classrooms. At the same time, increasing emphasis on learning standards places greater responsibility on teachers and administrators to ensure that each of these students reaches the highest levels of achievement" (Rose & Meyer, 2002) As Rose and Meyer point out there, it is our growing responsibility to help kids realize their potential and during this assignment, I found that integrating technology is a great way to do this. By using technology in the classroom we offer kids a way to scaffold their needs into the work and be successful while learning new skills. "Providing multiple representations of patterns through a variety of media, formats, organizations, levels of detail, and degree of depth includes more learners by offering both choice and redundancy. Choice enables those with disabilities affecting a particular modality to access the information via another one. It also enables students to find the format or medium that appeals to and works best for them increasing their access to learning" (Rose & Meyer, 2002). As I move forward with my work, I will continue to keep this in mind when I design lessons. Giving kids a choice of materials, especially for subgroups like GT, helps them experience the learning in a way that supports the knowledge they already have.
Hopefully in the future I’ll find myself working to help other teachers integrate technology to become better educators. It is important to remember that “students in technology-rich environments experienced positive effects on achievement in all major subject areas” (Schacter, 1999, p. 5). If I can help other teachers to experience this the way I have during Teaching with Technology, I’ll be doing some good for education. I will continue to research these ideas as I move forward with my work.
Brooks, J. G., & Brooks, M. G. (1993). In search for understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Rose, D., &Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web Site. Chapter 1. Retrieved on October 5, 2009 from http://www.cast.org/techingeverystudent/ideas/tes
Schacter, J. (1999). The impact of education technology on student achievement: What the most current research has to say. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Exchange on Education Technology.